A hugely encouraging start saw Craig Willis hammer over a long-range penalty after being tip-tackled by Fraser Balmain, and when they turned down a kickable three from closer in they were rewarded by a try from Nili Latu at a driving maul.

Second-half tries from Peter Betham and Laurence Pearce sealed the points for the Tigers and left the Falcons outside of losing bonus point range, but that did we learn from the game?

1. Mark Wilson added second-row to his repertoire

It seemed the oddest selection in a long while when Mark Wilson’s name popped up in the second row in Thursday’s team announcement.

The Cumbrian workhorse has been a mainstay of the back-row and there appeared little reason to change things, but injuries to Kane Thompson and Josh Furno left the Falcons short-handed at lock.

The selfless Wilson stepped in, offering his usual brand of ball-carrying mayhem and giving a decent fist of a more prominent line-out role.

Dean Richards joked the players had been calling him ‘Minty’ in honour of England veteran Nick Easter, another back-row to second-row convert.

It may end up being a short-term fix but it is nice to know he can do it, even if it does leave questions over the wisdom or otherwise of signing Mouritz Botha. The ex-England lock was an unused replacement at Leicester, and has failed to catch fire since his summer arrival.

2. Craig Willis rises to a challenge

Long-term knee ligament damage to Mike Delany looked like handing Tom Catterick a clean run in the No 10 shirt, but the form shown by Craig Willis in Newcastle’s European fortnight saw him thrown in at the deep end.

Making your first league start at Welford Road may have been enough to crumble many young players, but Willis seemed undaunted.

Taking flat ball to the line he interested Leicester’s inside defenders in a manner which meant space for others out wide, and he kicked all of his goals.

As the game wore on some of his decision-making drifted a little, but as a maiden Premiership start it was a belter.

If anything it proved Dean Richards is as good as his word when he said the Challenge Cup games offered a genuine chance for people to play their way into the main team, although the slump in Catterick’s confidence was obvious when he came on.

3. Sometimes the table isn’t worth looking at

The first hour of this game was punctuated with score updates from Reading, where London Irish were winning, then losing, then winning and finally hanging on against Northampton.

The Madejski Stadium triumph was ultimately enough to lift them from the foot of the table and drop Newcastle into the bottom spot, but such was the Falcons’ performance level there seemed little panic at the Exiles’ fortune.

Nobody at Kingston Park is pretending the standings don’t matter and Newcastle are not in denial about the situation, but it would be pointless to dwell on the what-ifs when they are finally showing the kind of form which could ultimately lift them out of trouble.

The post-match utterances of players and management showed an awareness of the bigger picture, but they are not about to make talk of a relegation battle become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

4. When your plan is working, don’t veer from it

Newcastle started this game like a train, camping themselves in Leicester’s half and showing the required levels of patience to come away with points from their frequent visits to the Tigers’ 22.

Which makes you wonder why they began to veer from the script having gone 10-0 up.

Granted, Leicester enjoyed a two-man advantage at the end of the opening half and showed a greater willingness to keep the ball alive, but the Falcons noticeably stopped playing to the game plan which had got them into a promising position.

5. In praise of Bobby Vickers

I was speaking to a former international prop who shall remain nameless the other day, and he let slip the fact that Rob Vickers is a player nobody on the circuit likes going up against.

The reason being that he is a former hooker who has made a seriously good fist of converting to loose-head prop, and no prop wants to be second-best to a hooker.

The Yorkshireman is a quiet grafter who rarely makes the headlines, but in two full seasons at prop I am struggling to recall him having a bad game.